Data center moratoriums and restrictions in North Carolina (2026)

Local actions in North Carolina

Blocked or delayed projects in North Carolina

• Kingsboro megasite project: Tarboro's town council denied the special-use permit 7-1 on September 8, 2025, the county denied a separate permit, and ESS's withdrawal was announced at the July 6, 2026 commissioners meeting, with the company citing investors' push toward 'friendlier communities' and saying it had reached a settlement to drop its lawsuit against Tarboro. No relocation of the $19.2B Kingsboro project has been documented.
• Stokes County 1,800-acre project (Project Delta): Commissioners approved the 1,848-acre Project Delta rezoning on January 12, 2026, then voided it in April 2026 after a March 12 SCSJ/SELC lawsuit exposed a defective hearing notice. The board rejected a recommended moratorium and re-opened a permitting path on July 13, 2026. The developer resubmitted the week of July 20, the planning board recommended denial of the new application on August 14, 2026, and the commissioners' public hearing is set for September 8, so nothing has been rebuilt or re-approved yet.

What one campus pays a local government

The parent piece's calculator puts a single large campus at $2M to $90M a year in local revenue, depending on the tax regime and abatements. The reference campus (Project Blue scale: $3.6B of capital, 286 MW) pays about $157M to local governments over 10 years. Permanent jobs run around 50 per facility.

Run your own numbers in the calculator on the parent piece. Jurisdictions in North Carolina that say no give up this revenue, not the jobs.